20 Opt-In Ideas to Grow Your Email List

We all know that opt-in freebies are the best way to grow your list, deliver amazing value to your readers for free and give them a taste of what it looks like to work with you or join your products and programs.

And the question I get asked all the time is: What format should my opt-in freebie be?

The truth is — it depends.

I know people hate hearing that, but it really does depend on the content you want to create, the preferred format of your audience and what you feel most comfortable doing.

So, once you know what you’ll be teaching in your opt-in freebie, it’s time to decide what format your opt-in should be.

I’ve rounded up 20 different formats for your opt-in freebie in the list below, with examples!

These ideas can work for lead magnets, content upgrades and any other opt-in freebie you want to include in your content marketing arsenal.

Tip: Pin this image for later when you’re about to create your opt-in freebie and aren’t sure which format to choose!

[us_separator type=”” size=”huge” icon=””]

Here are the 20 opt-in ideas you can use to grow your email list:

1. Video Series

This is a common lead magnet for an online course, because the video training is typically much higher value and leads into the topics you’ll learn inside the course. These can help support a live launch or an evergreen launch.

2. PDF Guide or Mini eBook

3. Quiz

Quizzes can be great list builders, because they’re really interactive and fun. Have your readers take the quiz, but then have to opt-in to your email list in order to get their results. Or, provide an additional resource that helps explain their results behind an opt-in form.

6. Webinars

This could be a recording of a past webinar or registration for a live webinar. This is a great Step 1 if you’re running an evergreen sales funnel, because the appeal of a free live (or recorded) training is much higher than a free PDF.

8. Checklist

These always make awesome opt-in freebies, because people LOVE checklists. If you’re using this as a lead magnet for a paid program, you could put the steps to the process you teach into a checklist. If you’re using this as a content upgrade for a blog post, you could use the steps you outlined within your blog post and turn them into a checklist.

9. Audio File

This could be a series of audio files or just a single audio file that teaches your reader about a specific topic. It could also be secret episodes of your podcast, audio bonuses from your course or something else similar.

12. Audio Transcript

You could record yourself reading your blog post and give that away as a free lead magnet as an easy way for people to be able to listen to a blog post, rather than read it (especially if they are moms or someone who doesn’t have a ton of time to sit and read a post).

13. Behind-the-Scenes Content

Everyone LOVES behind-the-scenes stuff, so whenever you can pull back the curtain, it’s sure to be a winner. In 2013, I did a program called PowerPlay that included bi-weekly emails sent to my list about what was going on in my biz, what I’m focused on, what I’m launching and so much more. People loved it and it turned into my first paid eBook.

14. Email Course

Email courses are a great option for a lead magnet if you have a series of steps you want to share with people. Break up the steps into separate emails and deliver them to new subscribers over the course of 1-2 weeks.

18. Access to a Private FB Group

19. Free Challenge

This opt-in freebie idea is mainly used for accountability and based around a specific skill or problem-area. Challenges can range in length, but should be kept short enough so people stay engaged and long enough so people can actually achieve a result.

20. Resource Library

This is a great idea if you have a lot of smaller opt-in freebies and you want them to all be stored in the same place. This is nice for your subscribers, too, because they only need to opt in once to get all of the downloads. The value also looks much higher because of the number of opt-in freebies you’re giving away.